Truefiling

Assistance With Electronically Filing Documents

TrueFiling & Bookmarking

TrueFiling is mandatory in the Second District and the Supreme Court.

In Second District cases, CAP appointed attorneys (and only CAP appointed attorneys) are authorized to check the box where the Fee Waiver options appear stating that your fees have bee waived. In the California Supreme Court, however, CAP appointed attorneys still must pay to file and the TrueFilng expenses are reimbursed on your final bill.

CAP does not want to be served through TrueFiling. We ask that you serve us via email to our capdocs@lacap.com address.

The Supreme Court's TrueFiling rules for petitions for review and pre-OSC habeas petitions can be found here.

Here’s a short summary of the rules for the Supreme Court petitions for review:

(1) Bookmarks: PDF bookmarking is required throughout the petition at the section and argument headings. (See the rules linked above for specifics of what to bookmark.) However, the rules do not specify what to bookmark in the attached Court of Appeal opinion. We recommend that the bookmarks include the first page of the opinion or the attachment cover sheet and not the sections of the opinion. This is based on the fact that service copies for the parties do not need to include the opinion.

(2) Only One Additional Paper Copy for the Court: The Supreme Court wants one unbound paper copy (which should be identical to what was electronically filed, including the attached court of appeal opinion), not twobound paper copies. The unbound paper copy can be paper clipped.

(3) Mailing: The paper copy must be mailed to the Supreme Court within 2 days after the electronic filing through TrueFiling. This replaces the language requiring actual delivery within 2 days. In other words, the hard copy must be either postmarked or delivered within the 2 days. However, be careful if you are seeking a seeking an immediate stay; that changes the rule to requiring actualdelivery by the close of business the first business day after the electronic filing.

(4) No Consecutive Pagination on Opinion: The pages of the attached Court of Appeal opinion should not be re-paginated to be numbered consecutively to the pages in the petition. In other words, attachments can have their own pagination.

(5) Service on the Supreme Court via TrueFiling satisfies the requirement for service on the Court of Appeal. As stated on the Supreme Court's website: "Notwithstanding the requirements set forth in California Rules of Court, Rule 8.500(f)(1), submission of a petition for review through TrueFiling that is accepted for filing by the Supreme Court constitutes service of the petition on the Court of Appeal."

As noted, before a document can be TrueFiled, it must be bookmarked. Bookmarking can be accomplished in both WordPerfect and Word documents before they are converted to text-searchable PDFs for filing. Bookmarks can also be easily added to a PDF version of a brief using Adobe Acrobat Standard. (Adobe Standard is not the free Adobe reader and not the more expensive Adobe Professional.)

CAP does not endorse any specific product, but a free option for adding bookmarks to a PDF document is a program called Foxit Reader. Once you have created your final brief in Word or WordPerfect, including the tables and proof of service, you can open the document in the Foxit Reader program and very easily add the required bookmarks. Save the document with the bookmarks and it's ready for filing. A Step-By-Step guide created by CCAP explains how to add bookmarks using the program: Bookmarks with Foxit Reader

Court of Appeal Filing Guidance & Preferences

The Second District has updated formatting and style requirements (mandatory) and guidelines (not mandatory). An updated list of the Court's preferences is available on the Court's website here. Importantly, the Court prefers spacing at 1.5 inches and 13 point Century Schoolbook font rather than Times New Roman.

Additionally, in Second District appeals with appointed counsel, there are some documents (not briefs) that may be emailed to the Second District Clerks, rather than TrueFiled. That list is available here. If the document you want to email is not clearly described on the list, please contact the clerk to inquire whether it has to be TrueFiled. This emailing option is only available in cases with court-appointed appellate counsel. And, no other correspondence should be emailed to the division clerks directly. If you have any questions about this procedure, please contact CAP-LA.

The Court of Appeal has also provided the following support page to educate filers as to the requirements of TrueFiling, which includes links to TrueFiling videos explaining everything from establishing an account and uploading and serving a filing.

The Attorney General's Office in the Second District electronically accepts service at: docketingLAAWT@doj.ca.gov

CAP accepts service at: capdocs@lacap.com

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office accepts service at: Truefiling@da.lacounty.gov***NOTE THAT THE DA’s OFFICE DOESN’T NOT USE THIS ADDRESS FOR TRIAL COURT MOTIONS (i.e. credits/fines/fees). For those documents you must still serve the trial DA a hard copy in the mail.